Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-07-21
BITTER CREEKS BAD NANS
The Original Citizen Who Made Life Miser-
able for the People.

San Francisco Examiner
Nay, had the power I'd pour.
The sweet milk of Concord into he'll,
Uprear the universal peace,
Confound all unity on earth.
Il admit that | am from Bitter Greek"
said W. F. Robbins at the Russ House yes
terday. can't help it. 1 was from
there, and now can't very we'll get away
for keeps. Besides, why should 1? I am
doing very well there aad like the place.
"But got little weary. Everywhere I
go when put down my name the fool
clerk says:
sob, aha! Your the Bad Man from
Bitter Greek, are your"
These things make me weary. New
to the idiotic clerks and others, perhaps.
who make the remark, but awfully old to
me.
you say you half supposed this Bitter
Greek, or at least the Bad Man part of it.
Consult your map. You'll find one Bitter
Greek In Wyoming, two il Ar1zonia, one,
and possibly two, in Utah, one IN Mon-
tana, and one In California. Almost all
are small streams, or they would be called
rivers.
swell, the genuine and historic stream
is IN southwestern Montana, and that's
were hail from. The creek is 10 miles
long, and empties into the the Clark's
Fork of the Columbia.
"The bad man was fellow named Jim
Yount, an exceedingly rocky individual,
who came there In very early times from
Tennessee. Nobody knew the exact date,
for he was ahead of most everybody else.
He was none of your mild-mannered, sort
of msn as Slade was represented to be.
Originally in Tennessee, I suppose he
was a Knob hitler.
"UpoE my word, he was the most vic
ious, vindictive man 1 ever heard of. He
fairly earned his title. We heard he was
a murderer in Tennessee of three boys,
playm ates in school whom he didn't like.
He sloped to Missouri and knitted an old
gentlemen, in whose employ he was, be
cause the old man insisted on his getting
up at O'Clock IL the morning.
HE blazed his way in this manner
pretty effectually to the West. One of
his first deeds, which the pioneers of Mon
tana recollect was the shooting off of
both ears of hull whacker by Jim.
'JIm saw him driving along, and re-
marked to a friend that he thought he
could make a center-shoot on the team
ster's big ear. The friend doubted it. and
he let her go. He struck the auditing
apparatus plum in the middle. Before the
teamster could clap his hand en- the shot
ear whack went the ball through the 9th
er one.
'The bad man then asked the bull
whacker if he didn't want him to present
him with a couple of earbObs since he
had such nice round hole to put them
in.
His next deed was to burn school
house-some twenty miles away. He
claimed the children made faces at him
as he was going along one day, and he'd
be hanged if he'd have such kids to grow
up to know any more then he did.
SIN a dispute with two confederates
about some stolen horses in go, year
after this school house. he killed both of
them, took all the stock and gobbled their
money. He didn't even bury the fellows,
but left their bodies laying only fifty
yards or so from the corral.
"But his best hold was in the saloons.
He'd drink barrel of whiskey every few
days-no soft drink for him-whiskey
every time. He had bleared, blotched
face that looked like chrome, and his
oaths and language in general was some
thing frightful to hear.
ly days that he didn't commit. He held
up stages, stole bullion and robbed mails
with impunity. Nobody molested him.
Everybody feigned now to know who did
it, and everybody went around cringingly
asking Jim as they patted him on the
back, to take a drink. Quiet often L ED
get mad at this even, and tell them to
have a care how they came soldering
| ornunH him hatI chnnt tho 4ny of ha5
head off.
"Jim played many brilliant engage
ments of this sort around Virginia City,
in Montana, Boulder City and others
places. His Bitter Greek ranch was only
rendezvous for him, sort of central
or pivotal point, where ne and fellow
thieves rounded up their stolen horses
and cattle.
''Jlm run along for several years in
| this way, cutting, shooting and killing
yards wouldn't hold the people that he
| had laid away.
"In '67, however, Jim made one trip
record over there. But the rich placers
had drawn host Of bad men there, an6
one night when Jim drew his artillery in
Tom Best's gambling drive and began
to lay on right and left he got a ball in
his heart that forever fixed him.
son the crowd, though, he killed four
/ first and MANNED for life three or four
more. He was buried out in the foothills
| near Helena, and for long time and I'M
til it rotted away plain pine board
marked his grave and bore the inscrip
ton:
HE BAD MAN FROM BITTER CREEK.
II think Jim was about 40 years ole
| when he was rounded in. 1t was a GLAD
day for Bitter Creek and a joyful one fo1